Alison Arngrim
New York Times Best Selling author of “Confessions of A Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated,” Alison Arngrim is best known to viewers world-wide for her portrayal of the incredibly nasty “Nellie Oleson” on the much loved, long running hit television series “Little House On The Prairie,” and continues to amuse audiences through her many film, television, stage and multi-media appearances. Read more…
Barbara Van Orden
Barbara Van Orden is a walking miracle – both literally and figuratively. In 1982, as her modeling career was blossoming, Barbara was struck by an epileptic driver while crossing the street, resulting in 12 breaks in her right leg, five breaks in her left leg… Read more
David Carr
David Carr is vice chairman of The Joyful Child Foundation and an advocate for children’s rights. He comes by his passion honestly, himself a survivor of childhood mental and physical abuse. Read more…
Dawn Lyn
Dawn Lyn was everybody’s favorite little girl. She’s best known for the character of “Dodie” from the hit sitcom “My Three Sons.” While her young life might have appeared quite glamorous, the truth is, Dawn’s off-screen life was anything but ideal. Read more…
Dee Wallace
Dee Wallace is an actress, author and host of her own call-in internet radio show. Most known for her role as Elliot’s mom in “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial,” Dee was born into a poverty-stricken family in Kansas City, Kansas. Read more…
Erin Runnion
Erin Runnion is the Founding Director of The Joyful Child Foundation – In Memory of Samantha Runnion (“TJCF”), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation dedicated to preventing crimes against children through programs that educate, empower, and unite families and communities. Her five-year-old daughter, Samantha… Read more
Jacque Balbas-Ruddy
Jacque Balbas-Ruddy is an expert at turning adversity into opportunity. Throughout her difficult upbringing, which included abuse and neglect, she never allowed herself to be defeated and strove to rise above her circumstances. Even when living in a foster home, she found that her peers would reach out to her for guidance in their own personal trials. Read more…
Jody Vaclav
Jody Vaclav’s career has taken her from UCLA’s Neuro-Psychiatric Research Institute, where she worked on research grants, studying everything from schizophrenia to Alzheimer’s. Read more…
Johnny Whitaker
Johnny Whitaker began acting at the tender age of three in a television commercial for a local used car dealer. He went on to star in what was arguably his most famous role – as orphaned Jody Davis – in the hit sitcom, “Family Affair.” Read more…
Kathy Garver
Most remembered for her starring role as the older sister“Cissy” in the television hit, “Family Affair,” Kathy Garver has also garnered critical acclaim in movies, stage, radio, voice-over animation and audio book narration. Read more…
Michael Learned
Michael Learned played one of television’s favorite moms, Olivia Walton on the hit series, “The Waltons.” Her character was the soft-spoken, devout Baptist, tee-totaling mother of seven children. Read more…
Paul Michael Glaser
Paul Michael Glaser faced every husband and father’s worst nightmare when his wife, Elizabeth, contracted HIV during an emergency blood transfusion after the birth of their first child, Ariel. Elizabeth unknowingly passed the virus onto Ariel while nursing and then to their unborn son, Jake, three years later. Read more
Steve Pieters
The Rev. Steve Pieters is the epitome of the indomitable spirit and a force to be reckoned with. His remarkable story of surviving AIDS in the 1980s is considered an anomaly in the medical world, and a miracle in the world of religion and spirituality. Read more